To thrive is to prosper or flourish. There are a lot of ways that we can prosper.

Prosperity is not just money, but also a measure of success… comfort… and well being.

When we thrive we are succeeding, prospering, blooming, growing, and have potential.

When we say that we want to thrive, it means we want to live… but not just physical living but elevated to doing something successful, important, or of value in our life. We don’t want to just get by, but instead do exceedingly well.

We don’t like people who are wish-washy, who flip flop their beliefs or opinions based on who they are talking to. This is not to be confused with a person who has grown and over time changed their beliefs or opinions as they learn and experience life. We are talking about the person who talks out both sides of their mouth.

If we do not like these types of people in offices of authority, we also need to ensure that we are not those types of people and that we are steadfast in our own convictions and beliefs. Who I am in front of one person is who I am in front of another.

So many of our words from this series can be paired with steadfast.

I can be steadfast in my pursuit of joy, or peace. I can be steadfast in choosing gratitude, and love. I can be steadfast in my choice to move vs. be still. I can be steadfast in my faith.

Have you ever said to someone, when working on a project, that you needed to just “get into the rhythm” or “find your rhythm”? Or perhaps you are one of those people who enjoy the wonderful sound of good rhythms in the background as you work on tedious projects?

Rhythm is defined as a pattern of movement or sound that repeats. My friend Faith that the mind likes order, it doesn’t like chaos. And, that a mind that is cluttered can’t act. So it is no surprise to me that the mind would like rhythm. It likes the expected and predictable. It likes to repeat patterns, it’s comforting and doesn’t challenge it. When we take music and pair it to work, especially rhythmically it pairs action with sound and I bet our minds just love this.

We keep time as we sing or play an instrument by clapping our hands or tapping our feet. Think of the old railroad workers passing the work time by as they sung to the rhythm of their spike mauls striking the heads of the railroad strikes. Hear the sound of the coach shouting “row… row… row… ” in order to keep the rowing team in time with one another.

Rhythm can be a wonderful thing, but sometimes we can become entranced by rhythm. We can get so caught up in the every day rhythms and we lose track of the beauty and interest of the world around us. Sometimes, we need a new song a new rhythm to change the mundane into something exciting.

Remember the word yesterday, new? What did I say about it? I said that new was an opportunity.

We are faced with opportunities every day.

Opportunities to act, to do something, to take an adventure, to try something new, etc.

Opportunities not to act, to do the the same old thing, to stick with the status quo, to be complacent about life… never expecting better or worse.

To me, opportunities are exciting. Not every opportunity is going to work out exactly how we imagine it, but it’s still an opportunity. We learn what works and doesn’t, what we like and what we don’t. Some are opportunities that are done once and we move on with satisfaction we tried something new. Whereas, other opportunities become part of our lives long term… simply because we were open to it.